Hi! I originally posted this question on the Windows Server Backup forum but they told me to post this question on the SBS forum...

I'm trying to restore some files from a backup to a computer running SBS2011 (ie. Windows Server 2008 R2). When I use the Recovery Wizard launched from the Windows Server Backup mmc, I am able to find the backup on the USB hard drive, select the server, the backup date, and recovery type (set to files and folders). However, the application stalls on the 'Select Items to Recover' screen. It shows the server name under available items but nothing populates and the cursor indicates that it is busy. After ten minutes, a popup appears saying:

"The open instance of Recovery Wizard was inactive for more than ten minutes. The wizard was automatically cancelled to allow other backup or recovery tasks to proceed."

After saying ok to this notice, another popup appears with a title of "Windows Server Backup" appears saying Please Wait followed by a status bar that keeps refreshing itself. However, nothing happens and the program has to be stopped forcibly.

I thought it might be that the backup I made wasn't good but I made another one to test and the same problem occurs. There are no events showing up in the logs.

Has anyone encountered this problem before? Thanks!

Hi Kae, please make sure that you launch the recovery wizard via SBS console - Backup and server storage - Restore server data from backup.

You can also try Wbadmin start recovery :

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc742070(WS.10).aspx

I just did a backup using the SBS console then tried to recover files/folders (also from SBS console). However, I receive the same timeout error after 10 minutes. The backup works fine. The restore stalls at the 'Select Items to Recover' screen.

I don't need anything from this backup but I am worried in case I need to recover something in the future! I'm not sure how to fix this! Thanks!

Unfortunately, it gives the same problem even when launched from the recovery wizard via the SBS console. It seems the other options (restore Volume, Applications, System State) are ok. It's just the Files and Folders option that makes it crash.

Anyone else had this issue before?

I have the same problem, cant restore a file.

Its an german SBS 2011 with all updates/rollups/servcepacks installed.

Anyone solved this issu? Thanks!

Unfortunately, I haven't figured out the problem. Hopefully someone that has had this issue and been able to fix it will be able to help us out!

Hi! I have the same problem here, I have to restore a backup from a foreing disk, from a different server, and during recovery wizard I can choose the source disk but then hangs reporting the same error.

Did you solve it?

Can those of you that have this problem check the list to see if your target drives are known to be either "good" or "bad"?  Also, please try a different cable and a different USB port.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/1780.external-backup-drives-compatibility-list.aspx

Can those of you that have this problem check the list to see if your target drives are known to be either "good" or "bad"?  Also, please try a different cable and a different USB port.

We have tried with two different disks, here are the details.

V. With Windows Server Backup feature, we are taking backup only of one of the virtual machines that is in an iSCSI disk and the virtual machine folder takes more or less 700 GB of space disk (vhds files and so on). We have a scheduled backup to another LUN reserved for that porpuse, and once we have took another backup to an USB disk (not scheduled, just a manual backup).

So, in another server with Windows Server 2008 R2, now we wanted to recover the virtual machine for lab porpuse, but we have the issue that we were taking about. The Windows Server Backup feature timed out reporting the error "The open instance of Recovery Wizard was inactive for more than ten minutes. The wizard was automatically cancelled to allow other backup or recovery tasks to proceed."

We tried it with both disk, the USB disk and with the iSCSI disk (we have unassign the disk from the original server, and then it was assigned to the recover server).

May be the GUI wizard timed out because 700GB is too large for it?, i do not know.

Thanks

Same issue here, 2008R2. Total backup size around 600 gig and when I go to restore individual folders and files it freezes. Is there some sort of timeout we can set? In my case there are tons and tons of little individual files and folders. 

Same issue. Backed up using USB from Server 2008r2 and trying to restore a file to another 2008r2 server but times out after 10mins.

On the server I am restoring too I have no backup schedule set but still get this crazy error saying it has halted my restore to allow any backups to run. What is the point of any backups running if you cannot restore.

Hi,

I can see this thread is old but it still looks like no resolution.

I'm having same issue, thought I'd use Windows Backup on SBS2011 as it keeps giving me errors on the Console screen but now I have come to test the restores and I can't restore files/folders. Exact same issue as everyone else in this thread.

Has anyone found a solution or able to put their finger on why this is happening?

Thanks 

Our company is experiencing this issue as well. Disappointed to see no valid responses from Microsoft. Server 2008 R2 SP1, unable to recover files and folders.

Bump.

We are also experiencing exact problem.  Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard.  Backup seems to be working fine.  We have 4 different external drives that we rotate.

Just checking.... I see references to VM's that are not restoring files or folders so can anyone still active on this thread verify they are NOT backing up and attempting to restore (a subset of) VMs?

Those that ARE backing up and attempting to restore sub sets of VMs... can you tell us what the hypervisor is, how the VMs were created and how the backups are done?  What I am after here is how the VM instance of Essentials or SBS communicates with an external USB drive.

Lastly, the post immediately before this one and some others appears to be about Standard Server, not SBS or Essentials.  Those questions may be more appropriately addressed in a Server Standard forum.

All,

I know this is an old... old... old (!) issue but I thought I'd throw my suggestion into the ring as it may help others.

The solution for me was to simply run the backup Application as Admin. That is, right click and run as administrator. This solved all of my hanging issues and it worked pretty much perfectly from then on.

Good luck!